Lessons

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Shoot: Shayla with 3 dogs “Aballah”, “Blake”, “Brody”

we are going to do these babies with a teal couch against the white wall, so we're gonna take the background down altogether. Is it? Shayla? Is how you pronounce it. Yeah. All right, let's have you. Let's just kick this down for a second so you can have a place to hang out. So, these babies, I actually got to meet them for a second earlier. And I'm so glad they're here today because a couple of them are real nervous. They're like nervous poopers, So, like they get so nervous that they kind of poop. Um, if you want to sit over here, I'm not gonna throw him under the bus. Some like your dog's poop. Yeah. No, I want you to hold on to them. Yeah. Come have a seat with them. Perfect. Um, no. So these are the types of dogs that I'm not going to give them a whole ton of attention. Thank you. And then I already asked shale earlier. If they're hearing is good and she said yes. So we're good with that. And you always want to ask people because if you're making noises and the pet start reacting, ...

I want to know, Do they have a problem hearing or they nervous? Because if they're hearing is totally fine and you're making noises and they're not looking at you at all, that's like major nerves. So that's kind of a situation we could take the treat kind of fight in front of their nose. All right, Uh, thanks. All right, So this is gonna look really good with their coloring with your shirt, too. I like it. So this is one of those situations where it's kind of iffy. I'm not sure if I want to start with just the dogs just because I know that they're a little bit nervous or if I want to start with the owner in the portrait. So I'm just trying toe, feel them out a little bit and kind of watch them while I'm sitting up when animals air in my playroom area and I'm setting up lights on the other side. I'm watching the animals the whole time to see, or they exploring on their own. Are they attached their owner? This situation is kind of hard because they're not off a leash, so it's kind of hard to tell what they would do on their own, but we're in a little bit too much space to let them just run free. So all right, I'm gonna have Let's have you sit with them. Shayla first. Just so I don't want to make them too nervous going by themselves. So come on over. Perfect. And you're just gonna sit? Call your legs all the way up, If you could thank yourself. One idea. All right. So we have Brody, which is this baby here, Blake, which is you? And then a Bala Bala Faria. Ebola o que kabbalah for Okay, Um, lad skin. Brody, appear Birdie. Just help him all the way up body your sweetheart and I don't want to help just yet. I'm gonna hold this baby so you can get that one up. Bernie, I wanna help just yet. I can, but I kind of want to give him a second to do their thing. And again, it's not my place to go in there and just grab, um, so we're just kind of see anybody. And another thing you can do is get him up and then go sit. So either way, that's a really pretty color you have on its Hi. Yes. If he doesn't just jump up, you can just kind of help this front paws up there and he'll jump all the way. Okay, sweetie. Come up there. Keep your hands on it. Don't let him jump down. Perfect. If you want to have a seat up there. All right, We're going to get his paws all the way over your left, and it's totally fine if your legs are down. No worries. Now that he's up there, you're gonna take his collar, leash everything off. But your job is to hold him. We're gonna turn your necklace because I can see your clasp. So front, or is this the back? Here we go. God. Okay, We'll get all right, you baby, on the other side. I'm ready. Ready? Up. There you go, boy. All right, So we'll actually yeah, just turn them around, get him real close. Like, and I actually hold on very legs all the way up. Perfect. Turn him around. We don't want his, but toward Djelic. I'm OK with his collar. I would prefer their collars off if you're okay with that. Okay, but his colors find I would prefer there's off whatever you're comfortable with. If you want to do all off, that's fine. Yeah. Okay. This baby all the way up in your lap, Perfect. And then we want to try and scoot his bottom, cause if his legs air going into her body, it's pushing his head away from her. So if you can try and scoot his bottom, I don't want to do it in Bug. Um, we just watch this perfect that gets him closer. This one up in your life? Well, that's four. Just we can get her. So you want to pose them evenly? As much as this baby can come up? Yeah. Perfect. Just like all right, I'm hanging there. I think Kabbalah up much as we can, sweetie, ball is lost in that hole. Just a little bit, America. Just a test shot. All right. Your job is to look happy thinking that I don't think this light fired. Let's see one more test shot. I don't think I'm firing my unplugged trick. Plugged the light in works every time. Cool. All right, sweetie. Perfect. Still. All right. Number time. Promise it'll work this time. Ready? Hang in there. All right, sweetie. You may smile and looking me, Then let them head up just a little bit. Yeah, And that baby is perking but not looking right at me. Ready? Perfect job Here. There it is. Perfect. And a smile. Awesome. Lean and just ruthlessly cuddle in. Awesome. Yeah, Thanks. Miles don't look mad at me. Perfect. Okay, that's awesome. Good job, you guys Okay? Good job. So that's three dogs with just me. So kind of showing you guys like we don't have to have an extra person there are reacting. I'm not sure if I stopped on the really good image, but, um, I like their expressions in that. So, hi. If we could, um is a ball okay with me, grabbing her? OK, girl girl. Okay. All right. Let's get this baby up in your lap. That that that that that, Like, just pull him over and see if he'll settle. If we could get him to lay a little bit, and if we can lay, I would prefer that for the shot. Anything. Nearly. They keep going to keep working with him. He's almost there. Perfect. Keep your hands on them. It's kind of balances it out a little bit more. Okay, Hold on, sweetheart. He's a little far forward. If we can screw him back without him getting up with that perfect, awesome glamour shots, All right? You were gonna look happier than you've ever been. There you go. Relax your hand, sweetie. Relax. Relax. Here you go. Happy with it. Awesome. Make sure their ears went up. I like the owner. Smile, girl. I just want to make sure I stop on one that go. And her color is really good with them, too. So I like the contrast with that. All right, so trick, you're gonna stand up without letting them jump down. So the one that I'm most unsure about is this baby over here? So I'm standing on this side just to be safe, and I don't mean ensure in a negative way. I'm just saying, um, I rather have her handle them, cause I know that I've already touched these and they're totally fine with me. Yeah, if you just want to stand up three. All right. We want them real close together. Here we go. All right, sweetie? Yes. Good. Um, it nice and close. Alright, So your job okay? Perfect. Right your job is to stay as far away as you can over here. But keep your hands in the shot. So you're gonna go right up against the couch like this? Yeah. You get a back workout, all right? We're gonna actually have an extra person come in. And it could be anyone. I don't care who it is. This is her friend that she brought to the portrait session. So and your job is just this dog right here. When I get their attention, hands out. You don't need to worry about these two. You're going to get these two perfect. I give them too much attention. Just keep your hands on them, all right? And our couch is kind of getting wonky, but I'm just gonna be okay with it. And hands out there. Find out. 10. Wait A good job of it. Stay right there and this baby might move. Hold on. Ready? Oh, thank you. Perfect. And again, if those squeaky toy made them crazy, I wouldn't do it. But they were totally fine with it. I'm actually going to stop on this image to show you guys the dog on the left is actually still a little bit unsure to see how his body is kind of leaning. So I would continue shooting the group shot until we could get his head kind of leaning towards a little bit more. But I'm OK with what we have right now, so I want to do if I could just individuals sure of them. So if you could pull this baby closer to you and you're gonna keep your hands on this baby Yeah, And you, sugar, right. All right, Truc. Perfect. Just like that. We don't want to go far because we don't want to make him nervous. This is actually a dog we might be able to use food with if he still keeps kind of leaning away because he's not crazy. So kneel down. If we could. There we go. And just make sure you're close enough that you can stop them. Lock your hand, sweetie. Go ahead. Watch your hands. What trends? I think. Perfect. Hey, stay there. Hold on. Steve would do one head shot. I love his little wrinkles on his head for them, if gloomy. Thank you, babe. Okay. I'm good with that. Cool dude. Okay, He's good. Let's light a call around you. Go. Sorry, I'm probably mixing their colors all up. It's perfect. Yeah, you're next. It's your turn. Your so excited. So this baby, just cause he's the way he's hanging out I really want to capture a shot with him with his mouth open. I captured on with this guy, but especially cause he's standing here and this could be a nervous thing. It could be, ah, hot thing. But I do want to get a mouth open shot. So let's just pull him over to the edge of the couch. He can stay on the culture, come down or whatever is comfortable with many. There you go. There you go. Perfect. Sometimes just walking them out like that. Then they kind of your guiding them. But they're jumping up on their own as opposed to going from here to here. It's not as easy to get him up, but getting that momentum and having him jump ups. You don't have to pick them up. Okay, you're taking up the whole corner. Cumbersome. All right, turn, turn, turn. Alright, Pulis tail out. All right. Can you handle both? Yeah, like your color, Harry. It's actually have you like? Oh, you Maybe once it first you consider, I just keep a hand in there. We need it, Okay. Can curl his tail around. So it's not in the shot. Yeah. All right, baby. Hold on. Yeah, all right. Yep. Bored with that noise, but his mouth is open. I love it on, sweetie. Uh huh. There it is. Perfect. Yea, google. Dude, I'm good with that. How show you guys the one I like arca. Yeah. Blown away by one of your very first slides in the this morning was about the dog psychology and seeing it working in practice here. How you're not using treats. You're not using toys, but they're staying, and they're focused on just connected with you. Yeah, it's just eye opening. No. Good. I'm glad. Um, and this is like a really low energy session, but I'm okay, cause the shots that I'm getting of them, they're happy. They're perky. They're really expressive in their eyes. So yet your turn high, okay. And I am using squeak, ease, but notice that I tried mouth noises first. It didn't work. He was bored with it so I could move to a squeaky but don't start with a squeaky toy if you haven't tried the other noises yet. All right. We want his head closer to me than his bottom side. Perfect. All right, sweetie. Ready, I think. Put your hands on all the time. It's okay. Get him in here. Time in section A good portrait. Okay, Done A good job, Miss Little Legs sticking out. He's perfect. Gil. I like that color with them. Well, so we did individual. We did. Group shot. We can stick him on group shop with everybody, we to dish the dogs. And then we did individuals of everybody. So if this was a really session, I'd probably shoot a couple more poses to give the owner more options on group shots. But I'm actually really happy. They did awesome for your, like, super chill and nobody pooped. Hey, awesome. All right, as long as they're comfortable, you know? And like I said on that one shot I showed you, I would probably keep shooting just so you don't have that lean too much. Thank you so much. No problems. Appreciate it. Thank you for your help. Okay, let's take some questions. Yes. So made out of gold Top Australia asked, What do you do for drooling Dog? Um, crank the air and give them water. So I'm thinking like, Why are they drooling? Are they drilling cause they're hot or they drilling? Cause they're nervous. What about the breed breeds that just, oh, like mastiffs wiping with the rag. I mean, I have no problem getting in there, so sometimes I swap their face and ripen on my leg, so I don't care. So, yeah, if they're drooling because they're breeds like that, I don't want a Photoshopped that out because that's just too hard with the foam and all that. So either grab a rag or I'll use my hand, wipe it off and keep shooting. But if it's a drooling from being nervous, let him get a little bit more comfortable. If it's drooling from, like, panting, then crank the Arab and give them water. Yeah, Does that mean you are sweaters in the studio? I like? It's 68 degrees when I shoot. Wow, that's what we shoot in. So generally you live in. Yeah, probably refreshing a question from Dan A K B. What do you do about family pets that don't do well together. That's a really good question. Actually, we have that a lot. We have some more clients who actually have to physically keep their animals separated at home. They can't even mingle together. Some dogs live on this side of the house. Some animals live on this side of the house, so when you're photographing them, hopefully there's a few animals. If there's just two of them, it's really hard if people like they don't get along. But I want to shout of them together. That's just kind of tough, because if they don't get along, it's hard for me to force them to be together. I won't photoshopped two dogs together in a shot. I'll do a collage. We can put them next to each other is to separate images, but I will not photoshopped them to make them look like they were in one shot. So in that situation, hopefully there's multiple dogs. If there are, I would separate them actually the session just about a week ago at our studio and, um, our client has two great Danes and there was the mom and dad visiting and the mom and dad had a Boston terrier anyway, Dr. Totally fine. I photographed all of them before, but the Great Dane was attacking the dad. And it was a new dog that she had adopted, and they just were not okay together. So we did the session, but we just kind of kept everyone separated. So when we'd pose them, we had Dad on this side. Great Dane, on this side. So we didn't have them all next to each other in that situation. We did keep leashes on, not leashes collars. We did keep callers in the portrait. So just for safety, even though I don't like the look, it was safer so we could grab him. Yeah. Are you laughing at me? What radio? There's people crawling people. No, but and I have a funny cat. Blanket questions. So horse Sheikh says they've heard when photographing cats that they're more sensitive to the smell of other cats and become can become easily agitated if you use a blanket that another cat had been on. So do you clean your blankets after every? I don't watch them unless they were partied on. I don't wash them after everyone, but I do let roll them. So we actually take everything out, shake it out, and then roll it. Um, but as faras the smell. And if someone knows that their cats like that, like a bring your own blanket that we have matches your home, your cats comfortable on it. So, yeah, there was a question that came in from night owl photo. Who said these dogs all seemed fairly calm and they're going to say we photograph a lot of rescue animals who have had not much training, if any. Are there any additional tips to keep unruly dog still and get their attention without creating more excitement? Yeah. So I was watching Susan along the other day watching this episode, and they were showing the before shots. And the owners are like, Oh, they're crazy And the dogs were running all over the place, and Caesar so shows up and the dogs were like, Okay, but if all these showed was just Caesar and the dogs and be like, these dogs were fine. So that's kind of one of the things that I wonder, Are these dogs calm or are they just calm because of the environment that we've created? So maybe they're hyper me even the puppy. When I was petting him outside, he was role. He couldn't sit still for a second. He was rolling upside down. He was biting me. Hyper animals or the easiest ones to photograph because they react to all your noises. No, the easiest ones. The calm dogs and the shy dogs are the ones that are a little bit harder because you have to work harder to get their attention. But hyper dogs, I take that all day. A lot of times people come into the studio and they'll be like their hyper. They're not going to sit still. And I'm like, Those are my favorite dogs to photograph. We got this. It's the ones that are really nervous that you kind of have to worry about and kind of to work a little bit harder with so tricks for hyper dogs. I mean, like I said, maybe some of these air hyper like I met these three guys in the one that I was kind of letting the owner handle a little bit more. That one was pooping like literally. It was like it was just standing there pooping, like as soon as I walked in the room. Not because I gave it attention, but it was just a new person. So that's just a nervous. And that's not a hyper thing. But yeah, when they're hyper even if they're buzzing around their crazy as soon as you make that, they're gonna stop for that split second just cause they want to know what it waas. Maybe when you do it well, but I'm gonna record it for your confessional. E. I think I love that answer. I love the answer you just gave and any answer that starts with. I was watching Caesar will on the kid. So we have one more dog. You want to go ahead and shoot the dog? Now, before we go to break, we have about 15 minutes, and it is a move. Yes, I love it. All right, We'll bring her in. A is, It was the coolest looking dog. She's all these cool little spot. I was really thought it was really cool. So, uh, maybe we have a question of studio audience. Do, uh, some pets aren't allowed on the furniture yet, and you're using lots of furniture. So what are your lips for that? I hear that all the time. It's really never a problem. Um, I have had maybe five sessions in seven years where the dogs jump up and they just kind of go. But when they're in a new environment and it's not their couch and they haven't been corrected before to get off that couch, it's really not been a problem. I mean, people say it, I hear it literally. I would say here it three times a week. They're not allowed on furniture. It's totally fine. Once they get up there, we're doing something totally different than you would do it home, and we're calling them up there, so it's really not. It hasn't been a problem. So if you were in their home making them get on their own furniture that they're not allowed to get on, what would you do? Probably not put him on the first of the clients aren't comfortable with that, Um, now that's a good question. If they're not allowed on the furniture at home, um, wherever they're comfortable. I mean, when you get into someone's home, it's so easy to do a session because no matter what you do, it matches their style. So you can't go like, Oh, I don't really like that background. That was your couch like that's your living room. So kind of whatever you use. If you don't use the couch and you end up using the floor in that situation, I think it's totally fine. Thank you. Yeah, I remember the question I was gonna ask which you just partially answered. If you don't clean things like the blankets between sessions, do you have a routine for how often you do clean things, or do you just worry about it when they get dirty? I just worry about when it gets dirty, and if dogs party on it, then wash it. Yeah, it's not really a Jessica Cream backgrounds kind of looking grungy. We should probably wash it, but yeah, I mean, there's some backgrounds. I probably shouldn't admit this, but there's some backgrounds. It'll go like two years without getting washed, and it's never really an issue Me when you're doing the session. There's so many different things happening that even if they're smelling different noise, that's usually not a problem to where you know, because I'm making noises. It's a new environment. The owners ask him and do something, so usually their mind is kind of on something else.